Dr Hilary Wason

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Hilary Wason
About
Teaching and learning
Research
Leadership and management

About

My role involves working in collaboration with colleagues across the university to lead curriculum reviews and the design and development of programmes, including embedding new learning, teaching and assessment practices. I also oversee the work of the academic staff development team who run the suite of Kingston Academic Practice Standards programmes, the Course Leaders programme, New Academic Staff Induction and on demand CPD workshops.  I am co-project lead for the Future Skills Staff and Toolkit project group and co-lead the design and implementation of an institutional CPD programme to support all colleagues to embed graduate attributes within their curricula. I won a Kingston University People Award for most ambitious team for this work. My research interests are in pedagogies to support staff to embed critical thinking and dialogic pedagogy in their teaching. I have received my Doctorate in Education for my thesis 'Learning to Teach Critical Thinking in Higher Education'. I am an AdvanceHE National Teaching Fellow, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and and Institutional Teaching Fellowship at Kingston University. I previously worked in academic staff development at Kingston and taught business at Kingston University Business School and Kingston FE college. I worked for 12 years in the marketing industry holding senior client and agency roles. 

Academic responsibilities

Associate Professor and Head of Curriculum Development and Enhancement

Qualifications

  • Doctorate in Education
  • Bachelor of Laws
  • Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma

Teaching and learning

I am a Senior Fellow of the AdvanceHE, a University Teaching Fellow, a National Teaching Fellow and a reviewer for Advance HE's prestigious National Teaching Fellowship Scheme. I oversee the team who lead on Kingston's Academic Practice experiential scheme and taught programmes which support colleagues to achieve a range of AdvanceHE fellowships. I also oversee the Course Leaders programme, Academic Induction, continuous professional development and curriculum development and enhancement support. I am a member of the National Association of National Teaching Fellows and contribute regularly to their symposiums and blogs. I am an active participant in the Staff Educational Development Association and achieved runner up in SEDA's Educational Development Initiative of the Year in 2018 for the CritTALK Community of Practice which I set up (Embedding critical thinking in curricula using a collaborative learning, teaching and assessment approach). I am co-founder of the SEDA sector wide Curriculum Development Network with the University of Warwick and Staffordshire University. Using money from a SEDA small research grant, I have  produced (with the University of Surrey) a compendium of good practice for lecturers to use dialogic teaching to support the Critical Thinking Skills Toolkit (2016).

I have initiated and developed an international collaboration with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) since 2016* and have worked closely with their Associate Dean, Dr. Melodi Guilbault and the Dean of NJIT, Professor Oya Tukel to embed critical thinking across their school's business programmes. In 2017 I visited the Martin Tuchman School of Management to present the critical thinking skills toolkit to colleagues and to teach critical thinking to their business students. In 2018, Dr. Guilbault and I presented a paper 'Developing critical thinking skills in the UK and the US: what can we learn from each other', sharing the result of a critical thinking diagnostic we had implemented in our respective institutions. I successful mentored Dr. Guilbault to achieve a Teaching in Excellence Award at NJIT drawing on our collaborative work about critical thinking teaching and my experience with the KAPS scheme, Kingston Learning Teaching Fellow Award and the National Teaching Fellow Award. Finally, I was invited by the Dean of NJIT for a curriculum development visit in September 2020 which was postponed due to COVID. I work with the Singapore Ministry of Education to train their teachers to embed critical thinking in their business curriculum and in my own time have developed a blended critical thinking module based on my Critical Thinking Skills Toolkit (Wason, 2016) with supporting teacher trainer materials for an institution in South Asia.

I have mentored students with their critical thinking development involving them in projects to further their own CV's. This led to a final year business students submitting a paper at the Researching, Advancing, Inspiring Student Engagement, participating in CritTALK community of practice and providing an endorsement for the new Chatfield Book ' How to Think'. These students were also joint research collaborators in the SEDA research project detailed above.

* Conference paper details can be found in my research profile

Qualifications and expertise

  • Transformative Learning
  • Critical Thinking Teaching
  • Curriculum Development
  • Dialogic Teaching
  • Staff Development

Undergraduate courses taught

Postgraduate courses taught

Case studies

Wason, Hilary, Lindsay, Jane [Collaborator] and Arrigoni, Francesca [Collaborator] (2021) Developing teaching quality and accessibility of critical thinking in the curriculum using the Critical Thinking Skills Toolkits (CTST). Internal Kingston University Report, unpublished.

This case study discusses my leadership of an innovative curriculum approach to improve the quality and accessibility of critical thinking teaching in disciplinary curricula. I have collaboratively designed ten research informed Critical Thinking Skills Toolkits (Wason, 2016). which have impacted on over 3000 students and 200 staff at Kingston University and across the sector. These toolkits were originated during my faculty teaching role in 2016, and further developed through my work as co-investigator on the OFS project ‘Meeting Employer Demands for Higher Order Thinking Skills’. These transferrable toolkits are shared across the sector under Creative Commons Licence. The University of Bedfordshire uses the toolkits as part of a guided learning package to support 600 students from a variety of academic backgrounds. I have worked with Roehampton University to adapt the toolkit for their new nursing curriculum. Advance HE/QAA have incorporated the toolkits within their Guidelines for Education for Sustainable Development. I have supported the New Jersey Institute of Technology to embed the toolkit across their freshman business programmes for 500 students. This case study contributes to TEF metrics on teaching quality, the learning environment and graduate outcomes as well as the value employers place on graduates who think critically.

This list was generated on Wed Apr 24 07:36:35 2024 BST.

Research

My research interests are in workplace learning, teaching critical thinking, inclusivity, dialogic pedagogy, curriculum design and active learning. I recently completed my Educational Doctorate which used a collective case study approach to investigate staff experiences of learning to teach critical thinking within their disciplinary curicula. I was the co-investigator for  the OfS Innovations in Learning and Teaching Project 'Meeting Employer Demands for Higher Order Thinking Skills' in 2017. I have established and lead an international community of practice which is currently looking at how to use dialogic teaching to enhance critical thinking and am the lead investigator for a SEDA collaborative project about 'Developing and Evaluating a dialogic pedagogy to support critical thinking' with the University of Surrey. I a member of the Future Skills Research Project Steering Group which oversees the evaluation of embedding future skills in the curriculum. I am regular contributor to the HERE and KERN research group at Kingston University and a doctoral research supervisor with the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre.

Qualifications and expertise

  • Mixed methods research
  • Appreciative inquiry
  • Phenomenology

Areas of specialism

  • Critical thinking
  • Dialogic Teaching
  • Workplace learning

Scholarly affiliations

  • Society of Research in Higher Education
  • Staff Educational Development Association
  • British Educational Research Association

Case studies

Wason, Hilary, Lindsay, Jane [Collaborator] and Arrigoni, Francesca [Collaborator] (2021) Developing teaching quality and accessibility of critical thinking in the curriculum using the Critical Thinking Skills Toolkits (CTST). Internal Kingston University Report, unpublished.

This case study discusses my leadership of an innovative curriculum approach to improve the quality and accessibility of critical thinking teaching in disciplinary curricula. I have collaboratively designed ten research informed Critical Thinking Skills Toolkits (Wason, 2016). which have impacted on over 3000 students and 200 staff at Kingston University and across the sector. These toolkits were originated during my faculty teaching role in 2016, and further developed through my work as co-investigator on the OFS project ‘Meeting Employer Demands for Higher Order Thinking Skills’. These transferrable toolkits are shared across the sector under Creative Commons Licence. The University of Bedfordshire uses the toolkits as part of a guided learning package to support 600 students from a variety of academic backgrounds. I have worked with Roehampton University to adapt the toolkit for their new nursing curriculum. Advance HE/QAA have incorporated the toolkits within their Guidelines for Education for Sustainable Development. I have supported the New Jersey Institute of Technology to embed the toolkit across their freshman business programmes for 500 students. This case study contributes to TEF metrics on teaching quality, the learning environment and graduate outcomes as well as the value employers place on graduates who think critically.

This list was generated on Wed Apr 24 07:36:34 2024 BST.

Publications

Jump to: Article | Book Section | Conference or Workshop Item
Number of items: 30.

Article

Anderson, Deborah, Wason, Hilary and Southall, Jane (2016) Supporting business students' transition into higher education : the case of marketing downloads. Teaching in Higher Education, 21(8), pp. 978-989. ISSN (print) 1356-2517

Wason, Hilary and Southall, Jane (2016) Using innovative assessment to enhance student engagement and develop critical thinking skills : the case of The Big Debate. Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal, 1(1), ISSN (online) 2399-1836

Southall, Jane and Wason, Hilary (2016) Evaluating the use of synoptic assessment to engage and develop lower level Higher Education students within a Further Education setting. Practitioner Research in Higher Education, 10(1), pp. 192-202. ISSN (online) 1755-1382

Southall, J., Wason, H. and Avery, B. (2016) The transition to Higher Education for non-traditional, commuter students - a synthesis of recent literature to enhance understanding of their needs. Student Engagement and Experience Journal, 5(1), ISSN (online) 2047-9476

Wason, Hilary and Charlton, Nathalie (2015) How positioning strategies affect co-branding outcomes. Cogent Business & Management, 2, p. 1092192. ISSN (online) 2331-1975

Book Section

Avery, Barry and Wason, Hilary (2022) Pivoting a Business Schools teaching online. In: Jamil, M.G. and Morley, D.A., (eds.) Agile learning environments amid disruption : evaluating academic innovations in higher education during COVID-19. Palgrave Macmillan. (In Press)

Conference or Workshop Item

Page, Nigel, Mulrooney, Hilda, Shearman, Gemma, Wason, Hilary, Yilmaz, Aybige and O'Keefe, Nicola (2023) A collaborative School and LTEC ‘design thinking’ approach to support staff and students in re-imagining learning. In: Festival of Learning 2023; 22 Jun 2023, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Page, Nigel, Shearman, Gemma, Wason, Hilary and Mulrooney, Hilda (2023) Using a design thinking approach to support staff and students in re-imagining provision of large first-year bioscience modules. In: Evolving molecular bioscience education; 25-26 May 2023, Manchester, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Arrigoni, Francesca, Micallef, Ricarda and Wason, Hilary (2019) Embedding critical thinking skills in the scientific curricula : how good are we? In: Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference : Making Connections and Sharing Pedagogy; 03 -04 Jul 2019, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary and Guilbault, Melodi (2018) Developing critical thinking skills in the UK and the US : what can we learn from each other? In: Advance HE Teaching & Learning Conference 2018 : Teaching in the Spotlight : Learning from Global Communities; 03-05 Jul 2018, Birmingham, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary, Whiting, Cheryl and Arrigoni, Francesca (2018) A tale of three faculties : addressing student's barriers to critical thinking using a collaborative learning and teaching approach. In: Learning, Teaching & Student Experience (LTSE) 2018; 24-25 Apr 2018, Glasgow, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary, Whiting, Cheryl and Clarke, Colin (2017) Critical thinking study skills. In: St George's, University of London's Education Day 2017 : Transformation; 15 Nov 2017, London, U.K..

Wason, Hilary, Whiting, Cheryl and Arrigoni, Fran (2017) How do we transform our students critical thinking abilities? In: St George's, University of London's Education Day 2017 : Transformation; 15 Nov 2017, London, U.K..

Wason, Hilary, Whiting, Cheryl and Arrigoni, Fran (2017) Transforming our teaching : using the Critical Thinking Skills Toolkit. In: St George's, University of London's Education Day 2017 : Transformation; 15 Nov 2017, London, U.K..

Eales-Reynolds, Lesley-Jane, Wilks, Clarissa, Anderson, Deborah and Wason, Hilary (2017) Developing an innovative approach to teaching and assessing critical thinking skills through the use of an online tool and a skills based pedagogy. In: HEA Annual Conference 2017 - Generation TEF : Teaching in the spotlight; 04 - 06 Jul 2017, Manchester, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Avery, Barry, Russell, Daniel and Wason, Hilary (2016) Commuting, working, attending and performing: the changing route to academic attainment and progression during the first year. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2016: Exploring Freedom and Control in Global Higher Education; 07-09 Dec 2016, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Southall, Jane and Wason, Hilary (2016) From “scholarly gypsies” to tribesmen of academia: developing the potential of sessional lecturers within Higher Education. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2016: Exploring Freedom and Control in Global Higher Education; 07-09 Dec 2016, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Anderson, Deborah, Avery, Barry, Lees, Rebecca, Russell, Dan, Southall, Jane and Wason, Hilary (2016) Meeting the challenge of Business School accreditation with pedagogic research. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2016: Exploring Freedom and Control in Global Higher Education; 07-09 Dec 2016, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary, Southall, Jane and Anderson, Deborah (2016) Moving from confidence to competence in critical thinking skills. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2016: Exploring Freedom and Control in Global Higher Education; 07-09 Dec 2016, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Southall, Jane and Wason, Hilary (2016) Realising the potential of sessional staff as educational scholars. In: Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship 2016: How Teaching Focused Academics are Driving Teaching Excellence; 28-29 Jun 2016, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Southall, Jane and Wason, Hilary (2016) Using literature to contextualize and build engagement with current management thinking at undergraduate level: ReadRight and The Critique. In: 25th Annual World Business Congress of the International Management Development Association (IMDA) : Globalization: Developments, Opportunities and Challenges; 15-19 Jun 2016, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary, Anderson, Deborah and Southall, Jane (2016) Creating engagement whilst building academic self-efficacy using “The Skills Toolkit”. In: 5th Learning, Teaching and Student Experience (LTSE) Conference 2016; 26-27 Apr 2016, Birmingham, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary (2015) Marketing downloads: a student led teaching innovation. In: Researching, Advancing & Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) Conference 2015: Student Engagement: Inspiring Innovation; 10-11 Sep 2015, Nottingham, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Russell, Daniel J., Avery, Barry, Southall, Jane and Wason, Hilary (2015) Addressing transition to university by using collaboration in assessment. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2015; 9-11 Dec 2015, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Anderson, Deborah, Lees, Rebecca and Wason, Hilary (2015) "Tagging" the literature with the Thematic Analysis Grid: a tool to facilitate collaborative research. In: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Research Conference 2015; 9-11 Dec 2015, Newport, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Anderson, Deborah, Wason, Hilary and Charlton, Nathalie (2015) Employer insights: instigating student-led career guidance. In: 4th Learning, Teaching and Student Experience (LTSE) Conference 2015; 28-29 Apr 2015, York, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary and Charlton, Nathalie (2015) Marketing downloads: a comparison of two assessment methods. In: Festival of Learning 2015; 12-16 Jan 2015, Kingston Upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary, Charlton, Nathalie and Anderson, Deborah (2015) Marketing downloads: a student-centred learning and assessment innovation. In: 5th Assessment in Higher Education Conference (AHEC); 24-25 Jun 2015, Birmingham, U.K.. (Unpublished)

Wason, Hilary, Lees, Rebecca and Anderson, Deborah (2015) Mind the gap : developing self-efficacy amongst 1st year students during transition to higher education (work in progress). In: 3rd International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues (ICCMI) 2015; 30 Jun - 02 Jul 2015, Kingston upon Thames, U.K..

Wason, Hilary, Charlton, Nathalie and Lees, Rebecca (2015) Mind the gap: developing student confidence during transition. In: 14th European Conference on Research Methodology (ECRM) for Business and Management Studies; 11-12 Jun 2015, Valletta, Malta. ISSN (print) 2049-0968 ISBN 9781910810118

This list was generated on Wed Apr 24 07:18:45 2024 BST.

Leadership and management

I strategically lead critical thinking skills and dialogic teaching development across the institution and have initiated and developed CriTALK an international community of practice which shares best practice about critical thinking. This academic year, the community of focussing on evaluating how dialogic teaching can support critical thinking through my role as principal investigator on the SEDA small grant. I was member of project group 'Enhancing Graduate Prospects' under the banner of the institutional KU22 programmelooking at enhancing graduate outcomes through the development of a strategy to embed employability in the curriculum. This led to being invited to be joint project lead for the Future Skills Staff Training and Toolkit Project Group where I led the staff development support for embedding Future Skills Navigate in the curriculum for every level 4 student. This work led to a Kingston University People Award for most ambitious team. 

Case studies

Wason, Hilary, Lindsay, Jane [Collaborator] and Arrigoni, Francesca [Collaborator] (2021) Developing teaching quality and accessibility of critical thinking in the curriculum using the Critical Thinking Skills Toolkits (CTST). Internal Kingston University Report, unpublished.

This case study discusses my leadership of an innovative curriculum approach to improve the quality and accessibility of critical thinking teaching in disciplinary curricula. I have collaboratively designed ten research informed Critical Thinking Skills Toolkits (Wason, 2016). which have impacted on over 3000 students and 200 staff at Kingston University and across the sector. These toolkits were originated during my faculty teaching role in 2016, and further developed through my work as co-investigator on the OFS project ‘Meeting Employer Demands for Higher Order Thinking Skills’. These transferrable toolkits are shared across the sector under Creative Commons Licence. The University of Bedfordshire uses the toolkits as part of a guided learning package to support 600 students from a variety of academic backgrounds. I have worked with Roehampton University to adapt the toolkit for their new nursing curriculum. Advance HE/QAA have incorporated the toolkits within their Guidelines for Education for Sustainable Development. I have supported the New Jersey Institute of Technology to embed the toolkit across their freshman business programmes for 500 students. This case study contributes to TEF metrics on teaching quality, the learning environment and graduate outcomes as well as the value employers place on graduates who think critically.

This list was generated on Wed Apr 24 07:36:35 2024 BST.